


afterdeath

by allp_wips



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-06-24 23:20:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19733734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allp_wips/pseuds/allp_wips
Summary: there is life after death.





	afterdeath

After that night on the rooftop, Alex holds Kara as she cries through the night, body wracking with sobs for an aunt she'd missed for thirteen years, and whom she'd barely got to know before she'd been taken away from her again.

She retrieves Astra's prone body with the rest of the DEO team, before Non can come looking for it.

She stands by Kara as she recites the proper funeral rites and propels Astra's coffin far into the sky, where Non can't reach.

Two weeks later, she's first on the scene when an unidentified object crashes into the Pacific Ocean. She's the one who extends a hand out to the pallid arm that reaches out of a blood red coffin. She's the one who pulls Astra out, Astra whose wounds have been healed by a brief proximity to the sun.

She's the one who helps Astra disappear again, before anyone else finds out that she's returned.

\---

A week later they meet again, under the cloak of night.

"It worked," Astra breathes. "Non and his men have not been out scouting for me. He truly thinks I'm dead."

Alex nods.

"Hasn't stopped him from taking his anger out by wreaking havoc on the city," she says. "The deal was that you'd stop him."

"I will," Astra vows. "Even if I have to go back and fight every last one of my fellow inmates. I am a woman of my word, Agent Danvers."

It's stupid to believe her. Alex believes her.

She sighs, and looks away from Astra's intense stare. "You should tell Kara that you're alive."

Astra looks immediately wrecked, and Alex hates that it affects her. She'd rather hate this woman, would rather see every Kryptonian except Kara as cold and heartless beings that she's prepared to kill. If only Astra isn't so damned emotive.

"Soon," Astra says. "I have unfinished business with Non, and my fellow inmates. Once I wrap up those loose ends, I'll reveal myself to her."

"Just as long as she doesn't get hurt," Alex says, jaw clenched.

She won't lose herself in those indeterminable eyes, she tells herself. She won't. Astra can kill her as easily as breathing.

Except she hasn't. Except she won't.

Astra keeps staring at her, as usual, until it gets uncomfortable. Then she takes something out of her uniform, a glowing ball.

"Here."

Alex stares at it. "What is it?"

"An omegahedron," Astra says. "The last known. You'll find information about it in the hologram."

"You were supposed to hand all items of this kind over to the DEO," Alex says. "That was part of the deal, Astra."

"I handed all the rest of it over," Astra says. "This, I wanted to give to you."

Alex stares. "Why?"

Astra shrugs. "That thing can power entire cities without fossil fuels, when operated correctly. If you can manage to replicate it, the possibilities are endless. Perhaps you should talk with Kara about it, and decide if a government agency should have possession of something like that."

She seems strangely untethered as she speaks, as if some last thing binding her had been set loose. Alex stares at the Kryptonian, who looks as if she could float away from her any moment, like a dandelion in the wind. Suddenly, just for a moment, Alex feels that loss fiercely, as if it would choke her. Which is stupid.

_ So stupid.  _ She should never have started seeing this woman as anything but the enemy, and now it's too late. It's not like Alex can just turn off her feelings.

"You better come back," she says. "For Kara, I mean."

Astra stares at her, a quizzical smile on her face. Then she reaches out a finger, and just as gently as the first time they'd met, she draws it down Alex's cheek.

"As I said, I'm a woman of my word, Agent Danvers."

She's gone before Alex can reply. Alex stares down at the omegahedron in her hand, seeing her conflicted face reflected on its metallic surface.

\---


End file.
